Halloween Spirit
by Arcade Lackey
Summary: This is pretty much just a fluffy Halloween Party two-shot. No plot or anything. Takes place in 1988 in 'Reload's' timeline.


**Author's Note:** This story takes place in the timeline from one of my other stories titled 'Reload', but don't let that stop you from enjoying it all the same. I've kept it spoiler free except for things that would be fairly obvious.

* * *

Sorceress pouted and groaned to herself while relaxing in her study in one of her cozy armchairs. The familiar scent of dust and musty old books always somehow helped her make up her mind. _Maybe this year.._ It was October 27th, 1988, a little under a year since Jet had somehow gained his memories of an alternate future that could no longer happen.

"Sorcere~ss," Set chimed as he peeked his head into the doorway. For various reasons he was decked out in a hooded, black and red warlock outfit, though the hood was down with his short, black messy hair running wild in several directions. "You're deep in thought again I see." He moseyed into the room, happy as a hippo. _I never get tired of this place. I still haven't read all these books either._

"Set," Sorceress chuckled sheepishly as she jolted in her seat, "You snuck up on me again."

"Yeah, well," Set laughed, "That's what happens when you float all the time. No footsteps and whatnot." _I'm glad I 'learned' that spell. These books are amazing._

"Set, you like Halloween, right?" Sorceress asked with a wide, hopeful smile. _I'd have brought it up earlier, but.._

"You kiddin' me?" Set asked with an incredulous grin, "That's one of the few holidays I actually celebrate. You got somethin' in mind?" _Let's hear it. She's __irresistible__ when she gets like this._

She scrunched her face slightly and stood up before pacing slowly, "I was just thinking.. Why don't we bring Halloween here, to Game Central Station?" She paced more quickly and gestured with her hands as she spoke more excitedly, "I'm talking decorations, costumes, the works. You think that we could do that?" She laughed and looked to the side shyly. _Deep breaths.. Too excited, too early._

"Well I don't see why not," Set said through a smirk as he crossed his arms, "If we're gonna do decorations though we'd have to talk to what's his name."

"You **know** his name," Sorceress said as she beamed a playfully annoyed smile.

"Fine, 'William'," Set said as he rolled his eyes in an incredulous way, "It's a weird name for some guy literally made of electricity though. He should have a cooler name, like 'Joules'."

After a brief, silly debate about William's name, they finally went off to Game Central Station and managed to convince the surge protector to allow them to decorate the place.

"Yes!" Sorceress shrieked excitedly as she hugged the living embodiment of electricity, much to his shock, "C'mon Set!" She grabbed Set by the waist and rapidly flew off back inside Blood and Thunder to prepare. _Let's see, what do we need? __Decorations~. _

William barely avoided being spun in place as they left, and adjusted his glasses. _Halloween, huh?_ He cleared his throat and chuckled before disappearing back into the circuitry of Game Central Station. _Sounds fun._

* * *

After making the initial preparations in her home, Sorceress enlisted the help of several friends and took to giving out instructions on where the 'decorations' were to go.

Trees were collected from the woods in Blood and Thunder, which the spiders who lived there weren't thrilled about in the slightest. A quick area reset however, was enough to appease them, albeit begrudgingly.

Felix, being the handyman he was, took to turning the nearly rotten trees into planks for Ralph to carry over and place in neat-ish piles within Game Central Station to be used as a temporary flooring of sorts, which the duo put in place with Jet and Set's help later on. The walls of GCS were all given similar treatment with the help of Zangief, Luke Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Darth Vader.

It took some convincing, but Sorceress even managed to have her darling 'little' spiders weave webs all along the ceiling. Sorceress let the bats and wisps from her game loose to fly around as well, so long as they promised to not cause too much trouble.

Before the day was through, thanks to the help of a few other helpers, Game Central Station had been almost completely transformed into what could be likened to the ballroom of an ancient, haunted mansion.

* * *

The next day, in RoadBlasters.

"A Halloween party, huh?" Turbo asked wryly as he leaned his back against Roxie's car, propping himself up with his arms, "Sounds like fun." He was in his taller appearance with his white disco suit as per the norm those days.

"I'd have told you **yesterday** when we were decorating Game Central Station, but you two were off to parts unknown," Jet joked. _We could have finished a little sooner too, perhaps._

"You have any idea how large this game is?" Roxie scoffed from the driver's seat, "You're lucky to see us as often as you do."

"Right, right," Jet laughed as he rubbed his neck and scratched his helmetless head, "Well if you're looking to attend, you ought to bring a costume."

"Is there even a place for something like that?" Roxie asked curiously as she shifted her gaze between Jet and Turbo. _This'll be my first __actual __Halloween.._

Turbo shrugged. _I wonder if there's a competition to see who has the best costume.._

"Either Sonny, or Neff from Altered Beast can set you up with something so long as you give them enough details," Jet answered, "..Okay, well.. Have fun and stuff." He laughed sheepishly and walked away. _Since I seem to be interrupting something.._

"Poor guy," Roxie chuckled. _'Only' 2__4__ and a half years to go.._

"He's fine," Turbo laughed before getting into the passenger seat, "C'mon, let's go for a 'ride'." _I'm rarin' to go._

"I'm surprised you didn't insist on driving this time," Roxie teased.

"I drove last time, remember?" Turbo teased back as he gave her a brief peck on the lips before licking his own. _Mmm.. watermelon._

Roxie rolled her eyes playfully as she continued chewing her gum. _Like we even go by that anymore._

Turbo grabbed the ham radio and cleared his throat before speaking in a proud, authoritative voice, "Attention all members of Turbo Force, and The Motor Lords; We're ready for another round. Positions people." _And to think I __might__ have gotten this game unplugged last year.._

"You **never** get tired of that," Roxie scoffed as she ruffled his hair.

"Who **would**?" Turbo scoffed back with a wide, toothy grin. _To have a 'force' at my beck and call.._

* * *

A few days with minor preparations went by and it was the big day at last, October 31st. Skeletons and zombies would occasionally reenact the Thriller dance on a large stage at one end of Game Central Station. There were buffet tables filled with Halloween themed foods, snacks, and drinks courtesy of Mary, some of the other Nicelanders, and the chefs from Food Fight.

By then everyone in the mood to participate in the festivities were all dressed in Halloween costumes. Some of which were homemade, while others were more detailed, having been crafted by Neff of Altered Beast himself. He was big into theater and often hosted plays during the arcade's closed hours, so he was remarkably skilled in this regard. Still others had costumes special-coded by Sonny or Bobby, though they kept their methods secret as best they could as it was still technically a taboo to modify code.

Sorceress went her own route and decided to make her own costume. It was a classic witch's costume, most easily likened to the Wicked Witch of the West from 'The Wizard of Oz'. She even brewed her own skin paint rather than relying on anybody else. She took to flying around GCS, occasionally letting out a haughty laugh.

Set figured that his warlock outfit wouldn't cut it, and being a zombie would be 'too easy', so with the assistance of Sonny, he had himself outfitted to look like Pinhead from Hellraiser. He was always a little hellraiser, he figured, so it wasn't much of a stretch. He had heard Pinhead's description when two arcade-goers were talking about the movie. The costume came out.. somewhat different than the original, but that couldn't be helped as they had no access to what the original even looked like. It was actually more accurate than one might expect all the same.

Jet took it upon himself to make his own coded costume. He had thought to make a zombie version of what he would look like in Sugar Rush 2 when it would finally get plugged in, but realized nobody would recognize him so he instead went ahead and made himself look like a ghost by upping his transparency slightly and giving himself an eerie blue glow.

Turbo got lazy and just had Neff do him over with zombie make up. It was at least realistic-looking.

Roxie, wanting to show Turbo up at all costs, had Neff make her a stola, which is the female equivalent of a toga. After that, she had him add a few touches to make her look like a zombie as well. If she's going to beat Turbo, she figured it's got to be at his own game.

Obi-Wan was a bit conflicted on how he should feel about Jet's 'costume' as **he** was a ghost of sorts by default, but at the same time he was modestly impressed. He just went as himself, much like the already-skeletons and zombies and other monster-like characters that inhabited certain games.

Luke didn't know what he wanted in the slightest, so he asked Neff to just 'do whatever'. As a result he became a zombie-robot-rhinoceros-man. The rhinoceros part was of course added in as a joke by Neff due to Luke's indecisiveness. Luke wasn't satisfied with the rhinoceros part, but how could he complain about that to a rhinoceros-man?

As a joke, Han Solo and Princess Leia simply switched outfits.

Ralph used some of Sorceress' skin paint to make himself the Hulk. Because it couldn't be more appropriate.

Felix had Neff make him both a Jekyll **and** Hyde outfit, which he would switch between occasionally, using Sonny's codework. He didn't **want** to double-dip in that he was using the help of two separate people for costumes, but he had to admit that Neff made the more detailed costumes.

Sonny turned himself into a demon, after making sure it was alright with Satan (it's Satine, actually). Satan was honored to have a new member among his ranks, even if only for the night.

Bobby did the classic mummy rags costume, except he added in a Pharaoh's headdress and scepter. He kept his peace sign medallion around his neck to help identify himself more quickly.

Zangief went with a complete set of bloody, Gothic-inspired medieval armor minus the helmet. He completed the look with an oversized war axe. All of which was made by Neff.

* * *

"I'd say everything's going well so far," Ralph laughed as he held a styrofoam cup which was dwarfed in his hand. It was filled with green fruit punch with a few white grapes floating in it.

Felix, in his Hyde outfit, scoffed, "Well I'd certainly **hope** so after all that work we went through to set it up." He switched into his Jekyll outfit, "It was fun setting it up; Don't get me wrong." He laughed sheepishly as he checked the pocket watch on his costume for no particular reason. _Why's it so hard for me to act like Hyde? It's just playing.._

"Right.." Turbo chuckled dryly, "Really getting into character, huh?"

"Yeah.." Felix smiled shyly.

"You're not still mad that my costume is better, are you Turbs?" Roxie teased as she ruffled Turbo's 'bloody' hair before wiping her hand on Turbo's back. _Fake blood, great.. Not that I don't have tons of that on __**me**__ already._

"Who's mad?" Turbo laughed defensively, "I'm **glad** you're so competitive. Otherwise I'd have nobody to compete with. Just you wait for next year though because **I'll** be taking **that** trophy.. There **is** a costume contest, right?" _I thought that was the point in wearing a costume. Although I didn't expect this level of competition._

"That's coming at the end of the party," Set said through a grin, "We're gonna take votes from everybody and tally them up." He had his arms crossed loosely over the black latex of his outfit. _C'mon though. It's obvious **mine's** gonna win._

Just then Sorceress swooped down nearby and beamed, "Is everyone having fun?" _Why can't every day be like this?_

"**We** certainly are," Set beamed in response as he gave her a little kiss, "How are the others?"

"Everybody seems to be enjoying themselves," Sorceress said with a nod of approval, "Thanks for offering up your stereo for the event, Turbo. I appreciate it."

"Ah, you know.." Turbo laughed, "Can't have a party without music.. Of course I'm still waiting for 'The Monster Mash' to come on. It'll be right after 'The Time Warp', I think."

* * *

Currently playing was the Ghostbusters theme song.

Across the room was a slightly unnerved Obi-Wan. He laughed it off however. _Nobody's going to 'bust' me.._ "Decided to hang out with your fellow 'ghost', I see," he said to Jet in a polite tone as he lightly clasped his hands over his ethereal, Jedi-robed stomach. He smiled warmly through his nervousness due to the song.

"Ah," Jet laughed sheepishly, "Well I figured there's no reason not to mingle with everybody for a bit.." _Awkward._ "So how are things going with you guys?"

"Better," Darth Vader breathed, "It is no longer as rocky as it once was, thanks to you." _Luke's costume is so embarrassing.._

"Well I only started things off," Jet laughed, "It was Obi-Wan and Luke who took the initiative after that." _All I did was start talking to Ralph back then.._

"Oh, c'mon," Luke said as he nudged Jet slightly, "You're not giving yourself enough credit, Jet." _My costume is so embarrassing.. Play it cool.._

"Alright, if you say so," Jet smiled. _He's just being polite._ "Sorry to leave so suddenly, but I'm gonna go see how Sonny and Bobby are doing." _Why a rhinoceros? Whynoceros? Ugh.. I'd better not start making puns. I'll leave that to Turbo._

"Later," Luke laughed.

* * *

"**There** you guys are," Jet said warmly as he finally located the Dunderson duo by the greenish-grey clothed buffet tables, "I've been looking around for a half hour." He laughed then nodded, "Satine." _Sonny and Satan hanging out doesn't surprise me._

"Jet," Satan said with a smile and single nod, "I see you've chosen the path of the dead as well."

"Most have," Jet chuckled and shrugged, "Lots of zombies especially." _I wasn't expecting Roxie's take on it though. Props to her for combining costume ideas._

"Mummies don't get enough love, bromigo," Bobby scoffed playfully and crossed his arms, "It's all good though. Nobody can pull it off like me anyway."

"Zangief is happy to have such unique costume," Zangief said proudly as he joined the conversation. _Crushing man's skull between thighs would be that much more efficient in this._

"It suits you well," Sonny said confidently as he knocked on the armor on Zangief's right bicep. _It must be pretty heavy, yet he seems unhindered._

"I am glad to hear this," Zangief laughed, "Neff spent much time making it."

* * *

**Author's Note:** This was originally going to be a one-shot, but I fell behind due to being sick and was thus not motivated to write more in time (I'm already a day late). Let's just consider this a two-shot that is as of yet unfinished. I've put a poll on my profile to let you guys decide the winner(s) of the costume contest.

In case you're curious about Sorceress' character in this, she's 'sort of' the same Sorceress as the one from "Beauty and the Bricks" that you possibly have read by now. However I'm going with an alternate interpretation of her personality (and love interest) as I honestly don't think I could pull off Queenbean3's interpretation well. I've at most used a few of her ideas for the character and her game (with her permission), while making up some of my own as well.

"Turbo Force" and "The Motor Lords" are actual teams in RoadBlasters, with "Turbo Force" being the Good Guys, appropriately enough. They're not actually mentioned in the game itself though as far as I can tell. There was a line of matchbox cars and even a comic for it that I don't know the details of.


End file.
